I’ve been accused of taking it rather easy on independent films when it comes to my criticism. Last week’s post of my The 4th Dimension review was an exception. It’s not that I didn’t like the film, but instead I liked it some much that I held it at a higher standard than most of the indies that end up on this website. All the films here are great. All the films here have potential. But this film, The 4th Dimension is one that may lead to achievements comparable to those of the films I mentioned in my review. It has the reviews in the trades if you don’t want to take my word for it. (Hollywood Reporter, Variety.)

In truth this film doesn’t even belong in this section. I generally only discuss films without distributors. While The 4th Dimension doesn’t have one right now, it will and will likely see the special edition release on DVD someday that accompanies the release of an even greater work. The talent that has first appeared in this film will result in films that you can’t even imagine right now. Discussing their ideas, their style and their future are directors Tom Mattera and David Mazzoni with this month’s indie interview.

The Film Chair: Where did the idea for The 4th Dimension come from, both using the idea of time and the fourth dimension and also incorporating the Philadelphia state hospital?
Tom Mattera: Dave and I have had a lot of very strange experiences throughout our lives, kind of on the supernatural side. They may have been coincidental; we grew up down the street from each other and both had sleep paralysis around our childhood and into our adult life. We’ve always tried to tie scientific meaning into what these strange occurrences that are happening could be. I went to school for engineering before film, so I had a strong interest in physics and higher mathematics and was always interested in the theoretical aspects of it, trying to tie it into the supernatural experiences. That was kind of the spark of it.
David Mazzoni: As far as Philadelphia State Hospital, that element, one of the major themes of the film is time, and the environment we wanted to set up was this detached reality that our main character Jack is stuck in. So we wanted to look for locations that are absent of time, or places that are kind of frozen in time. Philadelphia State Hospital is definitely very important to Tom and I being that we grew up in northeast Philadelphia, minutes from it. That’s kind of how that worked itself into the piece.
Tom Mattera: Just to add to that real quick, as far as time goes, photographs play a huge role in the film. Dave and I have always been drawn to photographs. You look at a photograph and it is essentially a frozen piece of time that you bring back. It can be a good moment, a bad moment, any type of moment, just to remember that. We really wanted to tie that into the film and we really put a focus on the photography in the film.

FC: On the photography, actually the cinematography, you have these long shots throughout the film. Can you describe how you and your DP approached the making of the film?
TM: We approached it like a circus act. [laughs]
DM: Every location that you see in the film Tom and I and Daniel Watchulonis made it a point to visit just to get a feel of what’s possible or what’s not possible as far as the kind of shots we could do. But Tom and I really made the decision as Tom and I were breaking the script down into a shooting script that the camera behavior was going to be like another character in the film. It was going to be used to advance the plot. As opposed to just watching Jack, you can actually get a lot out of what the camera is doing, the feel that it is setting up. And Daniel, his execution was flawless. We really challenged him. He was on the dolly.
TM: That’s the circus act part.
DM: We really pushed him but he just did a great job.
TM: To interject, in the film, we have a lot of long dolly shots and single take shots. The aesthetic we were going for was getting those long floating types of shots and also lagging behind the actor and always staying behind the main character, staying around corners to restrict what was being seen. It was to create a voyeuristic type approach, kind of like there is a supernatural presence always following Jack around. Another reason for keeping the camera distant is to separate Jack from the audience and to show his loneliness and detachment from society.

Indie Interviews #9: Tom Mattera & David Mazzoni...continues here